Pretend you're a pirate, or a treasure hunter of some sort, and you've finally
found the chest you've been searching for. It's half-buried in the sand, rusted
to the point of decay, with rotted timbers and a lock that's so old you could
kick it off. Your heart starts beating fast, your knees buckle to the ground in
front of the chest and you raise your sandy fists to the heavens in
celebration. You don't know for certain what's inside, but you hope what's
inside is what you've always thought it would be. You kick off the lock, pry
open the box and, as the lid crumbles away, it reveals in the noonday sun a
blinding, sparkling heap of precious metal -- jewels, goblets, coins. The
brilliant and colorful light takes your breath away, and as you run your hands
through it, for a moment, you black out.
That's what listening to V. Majestic is kind of like. Well, OK, so perhaps the
description's a little prosaic. But anticipating the music of this band is a
lot like wondering what's under the lid of that treasure chest. It's
multi-colored and unexpected; you simply never know what you'll find. It could
be piles of musical jewels, or it could be a trunk of tarnished brass. Either
way, whether it twinkles in the sun or has a dim but hefty feel, it's valuable
and makes for worthwhile listening.
This Sunday at AS220, V. Majestic will celebrate 10 years of musical merriment
by playing pieces from a 1992 concert featuring the band's acclaimed "The Fist
of Dad Suite" --named, incidentally, after a Japanese donut. "In true V.
Majestic fashion," says the band's classically trained French horn player Gerry
Heroux, "we're still getting the details together. But we know it's going to be
a little crazier than usual."
The group, which began as the Robert Jazz Quartet in 1993, now consists of
Frank Difficult on keyboards and video production, Heroux on horns and vocals,
Jazz on guitar and vocals, Stuart Powers on drums, and newest member Vinyl
Ricci on bass. Together, the band creates a vibrant mish-mash of sound with a
unique blend of influences, from krautrock, avant-garde jazz, and space-age
psychedelia to surf, classical, and Bacharach. From ethereal to abrasive, no
musical nuance remains unexplored when V. Majestic sits down to play.
"We only get together once a week or so," says Heroux. "When we're together,
it depends on our mood what we focus on. Sometimes we'll just start noodling or
jam on an idea. Other times we'll push ourselves to do real song structures.
Either way we enjoy pulling material out of the ether."
VM has also been fairly low profile in recent months, starting off this year
with a big gig at First Night but only doing a few shows since. "We're
constantly recording," says Heroux. "We have a whole sack of stuff that we're
going to release once we get the money to do it."
In the meantime, the band is readying The Fist of Dad Suite and Other
Selections, the live recording of that 1992 show (the band's second-ever
gig), for reissue. It hasn't been available since '93, when it was released on
cassette under their original name. It will be released on CD (with the
original artwork) for this event. Also available for the first time will be an
MP3 version of the legendary "V-Box," a 10-CD set of studio rarities, outtakes,
live performances, and aural insanity. There will also be a special video to
accompany the band's performance.
"You can grow old with this music," concludes Heroux. "If we were all a lot
younger we'd be slugging it out trying to make it. But you can still have fun
with this music. The legacy of what we do is that we make sure we really enjoy
the music we're playing. Our legacy is that you don't try to follow a trend.
You can do whatever you want to do. Ultimately, what will keep you together is
loving what you do. That's what we did and what we're still doing."
V Majestic will play on Sunday at AS220 (115 Empire Street, Providence) as
part of the "World of Wrong" performance explosion. Admission is $4. Visit
www.vmajestic.com for downloads.
LA MACHINE. Do you remember Six Finger Satellite? Yeah, me too. They and
a few other bands were an integral part of Providence's last Golden Age, when
groups were actually getting signed and making it out into the wide wide world.
Anyway, 6FS member Rick Pelletier got tired of waiting for the band to come off
indefinite hiatus, so he started dabbling in some other hi-watt tuneage. His
main focus now is La Machine, a trancey psychedelic outfit also featuring
drummer John Loper and guitarist Dare Matheson. They'll be playing Monahasset
Mill this weekend and have a whole slew of dates in the area this month and in
November.
"This is a litmus test right now," says Pelletier, taking a break from band
rehearsal. "We'd like to see what's going to happen with us getting back into
the swing of things."
La Machine started five years ago as a drum and vocal duo with Pelletier and
Loper, with the former filtering vocals through a Leslie for a real oblique
sound. But with the addition of Matheson on guitar, says Pelletier, "It's more
of a rockin' thing, very repetitive and psychedelic. It's totally music to zone
out to."
In addition to La Machine, Pelletier is also working with Landed, a local
outfit with whom he holds down his usual position as drummer, and he's helming
the studio operations at the Parlor. Unfortunately, 6FS reunion possibilities
have virtually faded from view. "I'd be all for it if we could get it up and
running again, but with everyone's schedule so crazy, it just doesn't seem like
it's gonna happen."
La Machine will play Monahasset Mill (532 Kinsley Avenue, Providence) on
Friday. Joining them will be Brooklyn's Plate Tectonics (with drummer Adam
Autry), and Saturday Night Palsy (from Providence via Kansas City with
Olneyville ties).
WANDERING EYE. After playing several support slots recently around town,
the Hartford-based rane will do their own headlining show at the
Met Café tonight (Thursday, the 3rd). They've just come off a hectic
summer with support dates for Santana/Rusted Root, Strangefolk, and Ozomatli,
so you kind of know by the company they keep what you'll be in for. This coming
Sunday (the 6th), Fast Actin' Fuses hit the Met with the tres
hot Division of Laura Lee, another Swedish band getting lots of hype these days. The Sleazies will also play.
Reach me at big.daddy1@cox.net.
Issue Date: October 4 - 10, 2002
